12/28/2007

Schooner Creek Trap

This in from Mike Samples

I have just returned from Schooner Creek trap. I am still not able to go down into the trap but my partner Duane was with me and he went in. We had three (3) wild, male Coho in the trap. Two of the fish were released upstream but the third didn't make it. We didn't know there
was a third fish until the lower gate was raised. The fish had turned sideways and wedged himself into the bars instead of going through the middle. When we saw him and removed him from the bars we realized he was still just barely alive, so we spent 30 minutes trying to revive him but to no avail. His jaw had been forced open while he was stuck in the bars and it appeared to be broken or at least he was unable to keep his mouth closed. Very unfortunate since we have such small numbers of fish this year. I am going to cc James on this one because we had a mortality and I am not sure the trap was serviced on Wednesday. Hopefully it was
and the group on Wednesday just forgot to enter anything on the log.

Thank you again for covering for me last Wednesday (Hank Bryson covered for Mike on the Siletz).

MIke